I try to be as accurate as
possiable with my work so I'd like to warn in advance that I don't
know the excate count of letters in a Scrabble game, so I'm not sure
if Nick could make the word his does or not, but we'll chalk it up to
some extra pieces if ya want. Second ALL the sign language stuff
will be as accurate as possible. There is no school for the Deaf in
Fort Worth (I know that was the last part) but it had to be there for
location all the deaf schools in Texas were too close or too far.
Later in the story Gil and Nick will be talking in sign language,
this will always be put in 'signs'. For the sake of reading most of
the time it will be in regualar written English, but that is not how
deaf people talk and occasionlly for dramatic purposes what they
really say will be written out. Sorry to talk so long on with the
next part.
Hidden Depths part 3
Warnings, some spoilers for the season finale.
Nick and Gil's sleep was interrupted by several nightmares,
surprisingly not all of them were from Nick. Dinner time found them
sitting around the table eating a re-heated lasagna. "Nick, wow,
this is really good! Why haven't you eaten it before now?"
"It's pretty simple Gr-Gil, during the week I'm usually too tired or
too busy to make anything involving, so on my day off I fix a bunch
of food so all I have to do is re-heat. We can have the chili next.
One of these days I'm gonna hafta bring some in for Sara."
"Sara? She's a vegetarian isn't she?"
"That's why, its vegetarian."
"Oh."
"Look, Gil, you really don't have to baby-sit me. Not that I don't
appreciate having someone here, I do, but you're entitled to your own
life."
"Nick I hate to break it to you but I have no life. Today is
actually my day off you know. Haven't taken it in ages, I was
thinking I would today though."
"Gr- I mean Gil, you should go into work if you want to."
"See that's just it Nicky. I don't want to. I think I'd rather hang
out here with my friend."
They spent the rest of the meal in companionable silence with the
dishes from dinner being cleaned and put up quickly and efficiently.
There was little need for talking as the two coordinated around each
other like they had all the times before at crime scenes. Eventually
they found themselves sipping coffee in the living room. This time
is Gil scratching T.S. "So, Gil, I talked about myself a lot last
night. Maybe you could share a story from your past?"
Gil debated within himself. Was Nick, trustworthy? Yes, of course,
but could he burden his friend with his own problems? "My mother is
deaf." Nick blinked in shock, all that talk of sign language last
night and that never came up? ~Well, the evidence was there, Grissom
recognized the sign I used so he must have known some.~ Not wanting
to interrupt Nick just inclines his head hoping Gil will
continue. "She wasn't always, but she started losing it when I was
6. We both took sign language classes together. When I was 8 she
had completely lost her hearing. I remember going shopping with her
so I could interpret. I knew there was a chance it would happen to
me and it's been hard to accept, but I'm slowly going deaf, just like
my mom." Gil fell silent at this. There really wasn't much left to
be said.
Nick stood up and shooed T.S. off from beside Grissom and sat down
next to him, saying nothing. ~It was there the whole time. We just
didn't see it. The court room, not hearing Sara that time, it really
isn't that surprising.~ "Gil, I know that it's not the same, but
having lived like a deaf person for years and not even realizing it,
it's only a handicap if you make it one. I know that reading
witnesses and suspects is an important part of the job, but really
something could be worked out. Even deaf, mute and blind you'd still
probably be the best investigator they have."
For no reason that Gil could think of, it was comforting.
Unburdening himself to someone that could possibly comprehend what it
was like, and having them support him. It seemed unreal. He never
had been very good with people. It seemed like Nick was changing all
that.
"So, are you up for a game of Scrabble?" Nick asked grinning like a
manic and seeming like Gil hadn't just revealed the biggest secret in
his life.
"Oh I wouldn't be so eager to play, because I do happen to play a
mean game of Scrabble."
77777777777
Over at CSI lounge the night shift converged, missing two
members. "Okay people, since Grissom actually took his day off and
Nick's out on leave I'm in charge and we're going to have to work
extra hard to make up for the slack. Fortunately it's been a slow
night so far and we only have a B & E. Warrick and Sara I want you
to take it. I'm going to stay here, if I need you for a call I'll
page you okay? Now that business it out of the way. I was thinking,
after shift we might want to get together and visit Nick and
Grissom. Grissom already called and said that he was staying over at
Nick's." A grin spread across Catherine's face, "last I heard Nick
was kicking his butt at Scrabble." They all grinned at that and
nodded their heads in agreement to the plan before dispersing on
their assignments.
They spent the night collecting evidence processing the crime scenes
that came up, but their hearts weren't in it. With one of their own
out of commission they just couldn't fall into the cases like they
did before. They were all grateful for the shift change and to find
themselves ringing the door bell to Nick's house.
No one was quite sure what they were expecting, but a smiling Nick
answering the door wasn't one of them. "Hey guys! C'mon in! I'm
just re-heating some chili and cooking some rice while Gil tries to
rescue his score in Scrabble."
The group on the porch exchanged surprised glances before entering
the house. "Yeah we heard you were beating him," Sara said.
Nick snorts ineloquently, "yeah, but that was like three games ago.
I keep beating him but he just won't give up."
"Three games? Wo-" Warrick was interrupted when T.S. came running in
barking his head off and growling at the group.
Singing Nick said, `down T.S. down'. "Here he has to meet you.
Warrick give me your hand." Nick extended Warrick's in front of
T.S.'s nose and signed `friend' he proceeded to do the same with Sara
and Catherine and just like that T.S. went from viscous to friendly.
"Wow, you trained your dog really well. That's amazing how you did
that." Sara backed away little though, in fear, not really
comfortable around large dogs. "So what's his name?"
"Thoreau and Spears, T.S. for short." Nick bent down, wincing a
little at the pain in his ribs to scratch T.S.
"That's an unusual name."
Gil walked over from the table. "Why did you name your dog that? Oh
and it's your turn."
Nick walked over to the board to study it while he spoke, "I named
him after my favorite authors, Henry David Thoreau, Shakespeare and
T.S. Elliot." He busily rearranged the tiles in front of him to find
a good word. "Ah ha! It's the perfect word, man Gil you set this up
for me beautifully. Not only do I get triple word score, I also get
50 points for using all my letters!"
The group walked over to see this perfect word, "Didactic? What does
that mean? For that matter what about cygnet? This is the most
bizarre Scrabble board I've ever seen."
Nick drew more letters out of the bag while answering, "Didactic
means intended to instruct, morally instructive or inclined to teach
excessively. Gil," Nick stressed the word hinting that it applied to
Gil himself, "came up with the other one but I still know what it
means, it's a swan hatchling." Nick reached into the bag for more
letters to find there wasn't any more. "Well you guys have pretty
good timing. The game's almost over, we're out of replacement
letters. I'm going to go check on the chili, you guys are welcome to
stay for breakfast if you want." With that Nick left the room.
"Hey, Gil," Catherine stressed the word having picked up on Nick's
use of it, "are you letting him win?"
Gil looked up distracted by the board in front of him. "Letting
him? I'm doing my very best and he's still beating me!"
Nick's voice called out from the kitchen, "that's because all you
know are long, fancy words. The secret to Scrabble is short point
filled words." Nick came back out and the game quickly rapped up and
he, of course, won. So the crew of CSI nightshift found themselves
sitting around Nick's kitchen table eating vegetarian chili and
talking. Currently Nick was telling them a story from when he was on
the force. "So there I was in the ER with a concussion and I wake up
with the doctor's standing over me. First thing he asks, `How many
fingers am I holding up?'" Nick holds up his hand demonstrating the
number of fingers, three, he's barely controlling his laughter. "So
they're all worried about serious head injury because I keep saying
W." At this he bursts out laughing hugh gales with ow's in between.
Oddly enough Grissom was laughing right along with him.
Eventually the two calmed down, "I can't believe you told them W!"
"It was so funny how the doctor stared at me then at his hand, he was
so puzzled!"
Sara, Warrick and Catherine all exchanged worried glances, with
Catherine finally speaking up, "not to sound obtuse or anything, but
what's so funny?"
Nick took a couple of deep breaths to calm himself and then
explained, "See in sign language three," he held up his right hand
with the thumb, index and middle fingers held out, "is this and," he
held up his left hand with index, middle and ring fingers out, "is W
in sign language."
Light dawned on the faces around the table. Not that any of them
laughed, some how they couldn't see the humor in it. After the
dishes were done the group found themselves in the living room
sipping coffee.
"So, Nick, this place has really changed." Sara said by way of
conversation starter.
"Oh yeah after Nigel I had to redo a bunch of stuff. Reupholstered a
lot of furniture, re-painted the walls, sanitized everything. Just
reclaiming my territory, I guess. That's one of the reasons I got
T.S. I felt better knowing that he was here in the daytime and that
if someone were in my house now he would probably know it." He
reached down and scratched T.S. Sara stared a little guiltily at
Nick, feeling bad about bringing up such bad memories at time like
this. Nick took in all their expressions and sighed almost
wearily. "Look, I know you guys are worried about me, and you have
good cause, but I'm really okay. Sure I'll have a few nightmares, be
a little jittery for awhile. I'll defiantly have to up my
appointments with my psychologist, but you know me I'll be okay in
the end." Nick got up and walked them to the door, "I really
appreciate the concern, it means a lot that I have friends like you
guys to take care of me." Hugs were passed around and to the people
on the porch it seemed like no time had passed at all.
Warrick turned to the two ladies, "did you guys know the was seeing a
psychologist?"
possiable with my work so I'd like to warn in advance that I don't
know the excate count of letters in a Scrabble game, so I'm not sure
if Nick could make the word his does or not, but we'll chalk it up to
some extra pieces if ya want. Second ALL the sign language stuff
will be as accurate as possible. There is no school for the Deaf in
Fort Worth (I know that was the last part) but it had to be there for
location all the deaf schools in Texas were too close or too far.
Later in the story Gil and Nick will be talking in sign language,
this will always be put in 'signs'. For the sake of reading most of
the time it will be in regualar written English, but that is not how
deaf people talk and occasionlly for dramatic purposes what they
really say will be written out. Sorry to talk so long on with the
next part.
Hidden Depths part 3
Warnings, some spoilers for the season finale.
Nick and Gil's sleep was interrupted by several nightmares,
surprisingly not all of them were from Nick. Dinner time found them
sitting around the table eating a re-heated lasagna. "Nick, wow,
this is really good! Why haven't you eaten it before now?"
"It's pretty simple Gr-Gil, during the week I'm usually too tired or
too busy to make anything involving, so on my day off I fix a bunch
of food so all I have to do is re-heat. We can have the chili next.
One of these days I'm gonna hafta bring some in for Sara."
"Sara? She's a vegetarian isn't she?"
"That's why, its vegetarian."
"Oh."
"Look, Gil, you really don't have to baby-sit me. Not that I don't
appreciate having someone here, I do, but you're entitled to your own
life."
"Nick I hate to break it to you but I have no life. Today is
actually my day off you know. Haven't taken it in ages, I was
thinking I would today though."
"Gr- I mean Gil, you should go into work if you want to."
"See that's just it Nicky. I don't want to. I think I'd rather hang
out here with my friend."
They spent the rest of the meal in companionable silence with the
dishes from dinner being cleaned and put up quickly and efficiently.
There was little need for talking as the two coordinated around each
other like they had all the times before at crime scenes. Eventually
they found themselves sipping coffee in the living room. This time
is Gil scratching T.S. "So, Gil, I talked about myself a lot last
night. Maybe you could share a story from your past?"
Gil debated within himself. Was Nick, trustworthy? Yes, of course,
but could he burden his friend with his own problems? "My mother is
deaf." Nick blinked in shock, all that talk of sign language last
night and that never came up? ~Well, the evidence was there, Grissom
recognized the sign I used so he must have known some.~ Not wanting
to interrupt Nick just inclines his head hoping Gil will
continue. "She wasn't always, but she started losing it when I was
6. We both took sign language classes together. When I was 8 she
had completely lost her hearing. I remember going shopping with her
so I could interpret. I knew there was a chance it would happen to
me and it's been hard to accept, but I'm slowly going deaf, just like
my mom." Gil fell silent at this. There really wasn't much left to
be said.
Nick stood up and shooed T.S. off from beside Grissom and sat down
next to him, saying nothing. ~It was there the whole time. We just
didn't see it. The court room, not hearing Sara that time, it really
isn't that surprising.~ "Gil, I know that it's not the same, but
having lived like a deaf person for years and not even realizing it,
it's only a handicap if you make it one. I know that reading
witnesses and suspects is an important part of the job, but really
something could be worked out. Even deaf, mute and blind you'd still
probably be the best investigator they have."
For no reason that Gil could think of, it was comforting.
Unburdening himself to someone that could possibly comprehend what it
was like, and having them support him. It seemed unreal. He never
had been very good with people. It seemed like Nick was changing all
that.
"So, are you up for a game of Scrabble?" Nick asked grinning like a
manic and seeming like Gil hadn't just revealed the biggest secret in
his life.
"Oh I wouldn't be so eager to play, because I do happen to play a
mean game of Scrabble."
77777777777
Over at CSI lounge the night shift converged, missing two
members. "Okay people, since Grissom actually took his day off and
Nick's out on leave I'm in charge and we're going to have to work
extra hard to make up for the slack. Fortunately it's been a slow
night so far and we only have a B & E. Warrick and Sara I want you
to take it. I'm going to stay here, if I need you for a call I'll
page you okay? Now that business it out of the way. I was thinking,
after shift we might want to get together and visit Nick and
Grissom. Grissom already called and said that he was staying over at
Nick's." A grin spread across Catherine's face, "last I heard Nick
was kicking his butt at Scrabble." They all grinned at that and
nodded their heads in agreement to the plan before dispersing on
their assignments.
They spent the night collecting evidence processing the crime scenes
that came up, but their hearts weren't in it. With one of their own
out of commission they just couldn't fall into the cases like they
did before. They were all grateful for the shift change and to find
themselves ringing the door bell to Nick's house.
No one was quite sure what they were expecting, but a smiling Nick
answering the door wasn't one of them. "Hey guys! C'mon in! I'm
just re-heating some chili and cooking some rice while Gil tries to
rescue his score in Scrabble."
The group on the porch exchanged surprised glances before entering
the house. "Yeah we heard you were beating him," Sara said.
Nick snorts ineloquently, "yeah, but that was like three games ago.
I keep beating him but he just won't give up."
"Three games? Wo-" Warrick was interrupted when T.S. came running in
barking his head off and growling at the group.
Singing Nick said, `down T.S. down'. "Here he has to meet you.
Warrick give me your hand." Nick extended Warrick's in front of
T.S.'s nose and signed `friend' he proceeded to do the same with Sara
and Catherine and just like that T.S. went from viscous to friendly.
"Wow, you trained your dog really well. That's amazing how you did
that." Sara backed away little though, in fear, not really
comfortable around large dogs. "So what's his name?"
"Thoreau and Spears, T.S. for short." Nick bent down, wincing a
little at the pain in his ribs to scratch T.S.
"That's an unusual name."
Gil walked over from the table. "Why did you name your dog that? Oh
and it's your turn."
Nick walked over to the board to study it while he spoke, "I named
him after my favorite authors, Henry David Thoreau, Shakespeare and
T.S. Elliot." He busily rearranged the tiles in front of him to find
a good word. "Ah ha! It's the perfect word, man Gil you set this up
for me beautifully. Not only do I get triple word score, I also get
50 points for using all my letters!"
The group walked over to see this perfect word, "Didactic? What does
that mean? For that matter what about cygnet? This is the most
bizarre Scrabble board I've ever seen."
Nick drew more letters out of the bag while answering, "Didactic
means intended to instruct, morally instructive or inclined to teach
excessively. Gil," Nick stressed the word hinting that it applied to
Gil himself, "came up with the other one but I still know what it
means, it's a swan hatchling." Nick reached into the bag for more
letters to find there wasn't any more. "Well you guys have pretty
good timing. The game's almost over, we're out of replacement
letters. I'm going to go check on the chili, you guys are welcome to
stay for breakfast if you want." With that Nick left the room.
"Hey, Gil," Catherine stressed the word having picked up on Nick's
use of it, "are you letting him win?"
Gil looked up distracted by the board in front of him. "Letting
him? I'm doing my very best and he's still beating me!"
Nick's voice called out from the kitchen, "that's because all you
know are long, fancy words. The secret to Scrabble is short point
filled words." Nick came back out and the game quickly rapped up and
he, of course, won. So the crew of CSI nightshift found themselves
sitting around Nick's kitchen table eating vegetarian chili and
talking. Currently Nick was telling them a story from when he was on
the force. "So there I was in the ER with a concussion and I wake up
with the doctor's standing over me. First thing he asks, `How many
fingers am I holding up?'" Nick holds up his hand demonstrating the
number of fingers, three, he's barely controlling his laughter. "So
they're all worried about serious head injury because I keep saying
W." At this he bursts out laughing hugh gales with ow's in between.
Oddly enough Grissom was laughing right along with him.
Eventually the two calmed down, "I can't believe you told them W!"
"It was so funny how the doctor stared at me then at his hand, he was
so puzzled!"
Sara, Warrick and Catherine all exchanged worried glances, with
Catherine finally speaking up, "not to sound obtuse or anything, but
what's so funny?"
Nick took a couple of deep breaths to calm himself and then
explained, "See in sign language three," he held up his right hand
with the thumb, index and middle fingers held out, "is this and," he
held up his left hand with index, middle and ring fingers out, "is W
in sign language."
Light dawned on the faces around the table. Not that any of them
laughed, some how they couldn't see the humor in it. After the
dishes were done the group found themselves in the living room
sipping coffee.
"So, Nick, this place has really changed." Sara said by way of
conversation starter.
"Oh yeah after Nigel I had to redo a bunch of stuff. Reupholstered a
lot of furniture, re-painted the walls, sanitized everything. Just
reclaiming my territory, I guess. That's one of the reasons I got
T.S. I felt better knowing that he was here in the daytime and that
if someone were in my house now he would probably know it." He
reached down and scratched T.S. Sara stared a little guiltily at
Nick, feeling bad about bringing up such bad memories at time like
this. Nick took in all their expressions and sighed almost
wearily. "Look, I know you guys are worried about me, and you have
good cause, but I'm really okay. Sure I'll have a few nightmares, be
a little jittery for awhile. I'll defiantly have to up my
appointments with my psychologist, but you know me I'll be okay in
the end." Nick got up and walked them to the door, "I really
appreciate the concern, it means a lot that I have friends like you
guys to take care of me." Hugs were passed around and to the people
on the porch it seemed like no time had passed at all.
Warrick turned to the two ladies, "did you guys know the was seeing a
psychologist?"